Founded in 1990 by Alan Caruba, a business and science writer, the Center is a clearinghouse for information about "scare campaigns" designed to influence public opinion and policies. Read Caruba's daily commentaries at "Warning Signs" (see favorite sites)
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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The EPA's Planned Destruction of the U.S. Economy

By Alan Caruba

If there was no other reason to
defeat President Obama in November, it would be the planned destruction of what
is left of the U.S. economy by the Environmental Protection Agency.

In “A Look Ahead to EPA Regulations for
2012” the minority staff (Republican) of the U.S. Senate Committee on
Environment and Public Works has issued a chilling review of a massive rise in
the costs of living for all Americans, massive layoffs in all sectors of the
economy, and the destruction of the nation’s energy and manufacturing
sectors.

The report provides a nightmarish
look at the regulations that EPA plans to initiate, having put them under cover
prior to Election Day in order to hide President Obama’s agenda of attacking the
energy sector and businesses large and small.

Here’s a list of the
regulations:

Greenhouse gas regulation via the
Clean Air Act

An Ozone rule

Hydraulic Fracturing

Florida’s Numeric Nutrient
Criteria

EPA’s water guidance under the Clean
Water Act

Stormwater regulation

Tier II Gas regulations

Boiler MACT rule

Cement MACT rule

316(b) Cooling Tower
rule

Coal ash

Farm dust regulation

Spill prevention control and
Countermeasure rule

These proposed regulations in
aggregate, if enacted—that is to say if not stopped by congressional action
based on Republican control of both the House and Senate—would prove disastrous,
starting in 2013.

For example, the utterly bogus
greenhouse gas regulations are based on the debunked global warming theory that
says too much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is causing the Earth to
heat when, in fact, the Earth has been cooling since 1998 and there is zero
evidence that CO2 has any impact on the temperature of the planet.

The greenhouse gas regulations would,
the report estimates, “cost more than $300 to $400 billion a year, and
significantly raise the price of gas at the pump and energy in the home. It’s
not just coal plants that will be affected: Under the Clean Air Act, churches,
schools, restaurants, hospitals and farms will eventually be regulated.”

If you love poverty, you will love
what the EPA intends to impose on the nation.

One astonishingly stupid aspect of
greenhouse gas regulation is called the “cow tax” in which ranchers will be
required to pay a cost-per-animal permitting fee. More than 37,000 farms and
ranches would be subject to greenhouse gas permits at an average cost of $23,000
per permit annually. It would affect more than 90% of the livestock production
in America and drive the cost of meat and pork out of sight.

As to regulating ozone, the EPA
itself “estimated that its ozone standard would cost $90 billion a year, while
other studies have projected that the rule would cost upwards of a trillion
dollars and destroy 7.4 million jobs.” Ozone is created and destroyed naturally in the atmosphere by the sun.
It is most noticeable over the poles where it has waxed and waned for billions
of years.So-called ozone holes show up
over active volcanoes. Apparently the EPA wants to regulate the sun and
volcanoes.

The technology of hydraulic
fracturing occurs well below the water levels and frees up access to natural gas
and oil. Naturally, many agencies in the Obama administration are doing whatever
they can to shut it down with costly permit and efforts to link it to water
contamination. It holds the promise of driving down energy costs
nationwide.

If President Obama is reelected,
billions of dollars would be imposed on virtually every aspect of life in
America, either directly or through the rise of the cost of everything. This
reflects the Greens obsession with destroying the greatest economy the world has
ever seen, our standards of living and the quality of life for every man, woman
and child in America.

About Me

I am and have been for a long time a writer by profession. I have several books to my credit and my daily column, "Warning Signs", is disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites, as well as blogs. In addition, I am a longtime book reviewer and have a blog offering a monthly report on new fiction and non-fiction.